Almost there

There was a strong rally on Wall Street, although it was on light volume, but it has helped the Asx 200 to kick again this morning. I'm about even though as SBM has fallen with the gold price to counteract a rise in LYC. SBM has reported and while the result is perhaps a shade disappointing, it confirms that the P/E for this year is about 11 with estimates of about 5 for next year. Next year's profit is obviously not easy to predict with some saying that gold has had a blow off top and others that the price is headed for USD 2500. That's not my concern for now, I'm simply trying to decide whether to hold for one more night as tomorrow is my last trading day before a break. The spot gold chart shows that the pullback wiped out a couple of days of gains but hasn't overlapped the previous swing high which means that it remains in a fast, clean trend.

I was actually unconcerned about the gold price because local stocks hadn't been responding to it in any significant way but there's certainly been some selling across the sector this morning. As for the SBM chart, the price is above the swing low at 189 from last Monday so probably a hold.

11.42 I had another go at MSB this morning after it moved convincingly away from the 715 level. Bought at 740 on a 10 minute push and just sold at 766.

11.51 Asian markets are down and the move up is just 17 points.

12.26 Japanese debt was downgraded and while not unexpected, it seems to have affected morale across the region. The market is square now which shows how little conviction there is in the moves.

2.29 Regional markets are recovering which has helped to push up back into positive territory. LYC has done very little, I missed the best price at the open but was expecting more, especially with US listed rare earth stock, Molycorp, up by nearly 6% overnight.

3.31 A rally attempt which saw us up 27 points has been chopped off again with the Japanese market slipping back down. I'm very keen to get out of my last couple of positions since I don't want to be trading up until the hour of departure which means I might just cut the SBM, trading at 192, 193.

3.56 Out of LYC for about 170 and SBM at 193 to finish up. I realise that this week has been a waste of time for me, I'm too distracted for intraday stuff, the market is too skittish for much overnight position taking and time is running short for that anyway. No financial harm done, but could have done myself a favour and had a rest.

4.10 It was another rollercoaster day with the Asx 200 finishing down 6 points. BHP has just reported and recovered a little to close unchanged.

More in October!